“This could be a very dangerous race to the top,”
Ackermann said at a conference in Frankfurt today. Markets may
“punish” lenders that don’t meet capital targets soon enough,
leading banks to shrink their balance sheets and cut lending,
which may impact the economy, he said.

Regulators of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision
this month reached an agreement for rules that more than double
capital requirements for banks, while giving them as long as
eight years to comply. Deutsche Bank will fulfill all new
requirements by 2013, Ackermann reiterated today, ahead of rules
for lenders to have a 4.5 percent common equity within five
years, and to add an additional 2.5 percent buffer by 2019.

Deutsche Bank is raising about 10.2 billion euros ($13.6
billion) in Europe’s biggest rights offer this year to acquire
Deutsche Postbank AG and boost reserves. Banks shouldn’t expect
that the markets will always be willing to provide them with the
capital they seek, especially as dividends and profitability
decline with tighter rules, Ackermann said.

Germany’s 10 biggest lenders may need about 105 billion
euros in fresh capital because of new rules, the Association of
German Banks said on Sept. 6.